Part II - Ascension to St Helena in BAe146-200

In my earlier post/flight, I'd landed on the Ascension island airport in the (QW) RJ85, (with default FSX scenery). Here, I do my due diligence, aided by pointer from (member) Mark (HighBypass) and add-on scenery created by Carlyle Sharpe, to continue my journey from Ascension (FHAW) to St Helena (FHSH). This flight afforded me an opportunity to have the honor of a (virtual) touchdown on (Napoleon's) St. Helena island (please note: St Helena Airport/Runway construction post-dates FSX, so no Rwy seen on default FSX!). "St Helena Longwood-Napoleon House" is a mansion in the island which was the final residence of Napoleon, during his exile on the island, from 10 December 1815 until his death on 5 May 1821. [I guess, it's not easy to visit this (remote) island as a (RL) tourist. So, a virtual visit, will have to do! And, as I also read somewhere, it's probably best that Napoleon's place of death (along with its limited flora and fauna) be left un-disturbed from the onslaught of commercial tourism! These are the same plants and wildlife that Napoleon would have passed by during his daily walks on the island (he had created walking trails for himself)...]

St Helena is located ~700 miles southeast of Ascension Island, and ~1000 miles west of Angola (see FSC Route screenshot below). I'd earlier mentioned the challenges of landing in St Helena's airport. The age of the airplane was of not much help with St. Helena because it offered no flat land for a runway and was consistently buffeted by treacherous winds sweeping off the water. Almost $400 million was spent to fill in a valley with some 800 million pounds of dirt and rock to create a runway and build an airport (in 2014). In spite of the expense and amenities, the perpetual winds continue to torment modern airplanes on approach. Today, only a special, stripped-down Embraer 190 jet with the best pilots in the world can stick a landing in! And, here is a sample of what the passengers may hear on the intercom, “Do not be alarmed. We will be making a violent turn to land and then pushing the engines to max thrust to avoid the head winds for landing. Cabin crew, take your seats!”

In this post, for a bit of change, I'm flying, not the RJ, but the excellent (QW) Bae146-200 (of the 3 BAe146 variants (100/200/300) available in this SIM) - in the same (SA) Airlink livery, that had the distinction of conducting the first commercial flight into the island. The BAe146 has no externally perceptible differences from the RJ, except that it has a less sophisticated cockpit than the RJ and a different engine type. The (QW) BAe146 FMS is a simulated version of Honeywell's GNS-XLS FMS system. There is no ND in the BAe146 cockpit, but a conventional PFD/HSI combination (please see [VC] screenshots). It performs LNAV well (and also has VNAV guidance, which I've not used here).

Napoleon had to sail 5,000 miles from Europe to St Helena, and the voyage had taken two months. From Angola, my point of departure for the previous flight, the distance to St Helena is about 1,000 miles (and the distance to Ascension Island is about 1,600 miles).

So, here, below, please find sample images from this trip of mine (FHAW->FHSH). For the final approach, and for personal interest, I've decided to make use of the "Synthetic ILS" tool to guide myself (vertically and horizontally) to within a few nms of St Helena's (02) Runway, and then completing the touchdown visually on to the Runway (I've included several screenshots of this ILS tool as pop-up (the ILS gauge nicely (and continuously) shows Distance, current bearing, Rwy Heading, and (artificial) LOC/GS (white on the gauge) needles etc. for guidance) - btw, I'd also used it in a couple of my previous posts). The final image of the set, below, is a Top-Down view of the entire island (add-on scenery with the Rwy at RHS), where you can observe the (central) vegetation surrounded by the (outer) volcanic rocks (the tiny 47 sq-miles of timeless land - in the middle of nowhere!). Thanks for reading and viewing.

[QW(BAe)/Carlyle Sharpe(FHSH)/REX]